How Many Listings Should I Have On Etsy?

When you open an Etsy shop and start listing things, you might wonder how many listings you should have. Some shops have thousands and some only have ten, so is there a magic number of listings that everyone should have on Etsy?

As a general rule, anywhere between 20-36 listings is a good place to start with an Etsy shop, but it’s not the end goal. You should have enough listings to fill up the first page of your shop in order to create a look of “fullness” when customers come to your shop’s homepage. Having more listings will give you a better chance of being found in search over time.

It’s a little more complicated than that, though, so read on for the details.


How many listings should I have on etsy

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picture of a few shops showing different numbers of listings in them
All of these shops make good sales on Etsy!

Is there a “magic number” of listings on Etsy?

There is no specific number of listings that will guarantee that you’ll get sales on Etsy. Some sellers do well with a few listings that they can sell repeatedly, and others have thousands that sell occasionally, but it all adds up. Whether you get sales with the listings that you have is more about the listings themselves and not about how many you have.

I’ve heard people say that as soon as you get 100 items in your shop you’ll start getting sales, but that’s not really true. If you have 100 listings for things that nobody wants, nobody is going to buy them no matter how many there are.

I knew someone who had an Etsy shop where she sold one thing. She did very well with her one listing because she drove her own traffic to it and people wanted it, so one listing worked for her.

In that case, the sales were coming from outside of Etsy, not necessarily from Etsy search, and I think that’s the part that people get confused about with the idea that more listings guarantee more sales.



Does Etsy prefer shops with more listings?

Etsy doesn’t give shops with more listings an advantage in search placement, but the idea that the more listings you have the better you’ll do in search does have a grain of truth to it.

It’s a simple math idea…The more listings that you have for a specific category, the more chances you’ll have of showing up in that category.

engagement ring listings on Etsy

Yesterday I was doing some keyword research and I did a search on Etsy for engagement rings that were over $2500.

There aren’t that many of those on Etsy, so one shop came up and pretty much filled the entire first two pages of results.

Because they had a lot of the listings at the price point I was filtering for, their shop showed up a lot.

There were some other shops in the results, but it could be that their price points weren’t high enough for very many listings to show up in the results.

Just on a basic logical level, the more listings that you have, the more frequently you have a chance to show up in search results.



But does that mean that Etsy is giving preference to specific shops? Not really.

Etsy prefers listings that sell over shops that have a lot of listings. If the shops that had one or two expensive rings only had one ring in it, but that ring sold a lot, Etsy will still put it on the front page of search.

They don’t give shops with a lot of listings any preference, but they do give listings that sell the preference, which might carry over to the shop overall.

So if you tend to see one shop a lot in search, it could be because they have listings that sell, and Etsy is showing it because of that. Or it could be because they have a lot of listings for that specific search, and there’s not a lot of competition for it.

So in a way, having more listings does benefit you in a few ways, but it won’t guarantee that you get sales.


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How does having more listings on Etsy benefit you?

By having a higher number of listings on Etsy, you’re more likely to be found in search results on average. This can lead to more visits to your shop, and with an average conversion rate, more visits equal more sales. If you only have a few listings, it might not be as easy to get the visits because you might not be found in search as easily.

If you only sell a few things on Etsy and you have limited inventory or one-of-a-kind items, this can be a problem.

Keep in mind that having more listings for the sake of numbers isn’t the way to go either, you still need to be selling things that people actually want. And you have to take the Etsy algorithm into account, so it’s a balancing act.

But in general, considering the way that the Etsy algorithm works, more listings are better, because it gives you a better chance of Etsy showing something from your shop in search results.

However, if you only have a limited number of listings you can always use scarcity as a selling tactic, which is another story completely. It really depends on what your business model is, there’s no one-size-fits-all here.

Just remember that on Etsy, the more, the merrier, and try to keep your shop stocked and as full as you can unless you do want to do a lot of scarcity-based marketing. (Like the product launch method here.)

It’s better for visibility in search, and even if Etsy doesn’t give shops with a lot of listings a preference, it will definitely give you a better chance of the search engine finding your listings in the first place.

Kara Buntin

Kara Buntin has run a profitable home-based business since 1999, and has a background in art, theater design, and cake decorating. She's a top Etsy seller with over 51,000 sales on Etsy and her own website, and helps other home-based business owners with their business goals and SEO. She founded the Artisan Shopping Directory website to promote the artisans who are members of her EShop Success marketing program.

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